TUSAL #6 ... late ... and some orchid photos

Dear all,

I have an extremely belated TUSAL post (don't ask by how much it is late ... dreadful). Note in the background my mum's orchid that has been moved into my room so it can get encouraged by other orchids to bloom. It now has 6 flowers (so the plan worked), and is one of 5 flowering orchids at the moment (2 of which were bought so probably should not be counted). 

#1-#5 and #6 in front

2014 so far!

The purple one I mentioned in earlier posts has had an extra flower and still going strong after 2 months of flowering. I own an orchid in a similar colouring to mum's and it has now 2 flowers (almost 3). The baby has now a spike too! It would be very exciting to see its flowers (I don't even remember what colour that particular orchid is). So fingers crossed that the process goes well all the way. The parent looks a little worse for wear, but its roots keep coming out in all wrong spots (it likes to grow them into the plastic support), so I think its getting better.

Two of my other flowing orchids (yellow/peach is my relatively recent half price purchase from tesco and purple was bought about a year ago and has only just been nursed into flowering state again):

Orchids posing with bird houses for Etsy

I can't believe that two months ago I cut off a spike from the only blooming orchid I had (still no spike but a new leaf beginning to form), and now three other ones have blossomed (+ 2 new flowering additions).

Speaking of bird houses and Etsy. I want one for my room. Need to find perfect fabric. It will be so handy. The yellow/peach orchid is right in front of me on the desk and if I had the bird house in it I could put the pins there any time I needed to instead of attempting to find the pin box.

Is it really Wipocalypse time again? - post #5 - a month later I manage to finish this post

Is it really that time again? It seems I have posted my progress only yesterday.

Oh well the blogging feed says what it says so be it. [please note I wrote this bit a long while ago, its seems it along with photos has been in drafts forever]

Let start with a biggie ... I have a finish wooohooo (I was going to share it in a separate post in advance, but the time has run out it seems).


I recently had this finishing mode. Where I had one finish after another. This, the Snowflower Diaries' one, I also completed my input on the latest doll in progress. Hair sewn, and body stuffed. She is looking gorgeous. Then I picked up my knitting (a project being stored for a year or two). It is a jumper that I almost finished and only had half the sleeves to go. It has a mildly complicated pattern so once you put it down picking up and figuring out what line of pattern you are on amidst what to increase what to decrease. Anyhow it isn't done yet, but getting close. I am now beginning slowly to decrease the sleeves, just above the armpits essentially. The confusing part is that I think the pattern is telling me to decrease too slowly, and judging by my tension I will have a rather long shoulder. I need to find my original tension sample. I have decreased the amount of stitches according to this, but as most of pattern tells you how much to knit in length rather than rows I don't remember paying too much attention to that.

Christmas Candle

you saw this progress a few days ago in the Tuesday post:

April 2014

May 2014

But I am actively stitching on this project at the moment. Getting through all that confetti hair. It isn't too bad to be honest I imagine the golden leaves to the right will be a lot harder if the first leaf that I had on page #1 is anything to judge by. Threading just for one stitch! common this is just plain cruel. I think I'll leave for last that way I can start gridding next page and move on the threads to next page.

Ember II

After a large input in April, May saw little stitching:

April 2014

May 2014

I have finished the first flower and started working on the next one.

QS Poisonous Beauties

April 2014

May 2014

Since the photo has been taken back in May, there is actually a little bit more stitched on this one.

And for the big finale ...

Lean on Me:

April 2014

May 2014

It is finished!!! Mind this was meant to be mentioned in the promised 'finishing mode' post, but that was back when I was ahead. And now I am a little more that behind.

Anyhow till soon. There is still TUSAL update from last month to go ... and almost time to begin afresh with this month's updates.

P.S. The questions of the month were: what designs or themes do you really wish you could find? What do you think is missing among stitching designs?

Well to answer I'd have to say I wish I could find Judy Rossouw work easier. They either cost a fortune and then a fortune in postage, or just nowhere. 

I wish I could buy kits for cards. The sort with pre-printed card blank. I am including 2 examples. One was a free kit with World of Cross Stitching. And the other I have created myself around the design. There is only a few I came across in this style.

Smalls #5 - Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe + a giveaway

I know I know it is Tuesday and no Tuesday Extravaganza (to be fair there is almost no progress from the last picture). I am seriously behind in several other updates too and will try to catch up in the next week or so. I thought of posting this finish as it is inoffensively simple (only one photo pretty much).

This is an 'Alphabet Ornament Collection: A' by Nancy Turner of The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.

I have stitched this with 'the best orange' (hand dyed by Nancy) on evenweave (dyed by my lovely mum with red onion skin and aluminium mordant).

The green fabric is essentially a bit more green than what my camera took. It looks nice, I love the green and the threads (especially the blended effect from light to dark on A), it was a pleasure stitching! But I think I will be restitching this design again. As I feel there is too much of a military sense about it. Not sure why. Must be this shade of green. Maybe once I will make it into a proper finish it will feel less so. I wander what will happen if I stitch green on orange? maybe the second side to this ornament? what do you think? And have a cord in orange and green. I am also planning on stitching another A from the same set of charts. It has a bird in the pattern!

Would you like to stitch something in Nancy's threads, if so she is having another one of her generous giveaways:

click here

You have until 15th of June 2014. 

Till soon,

P.S. a sneak update for next month's finish ... the sheep are coming ... you can probably guess what I am stitching next

I'm late, I'm late, I'm very very late or Stitch from Stash #5

I just got back from visiting friends and family down South this morning (night bus is not the best way to travel) and need to rush out to work. So pictures at a later stage (I'll try to edit the post when I come home).

I bought:

$9.50 'Moonlight and Moonbeam' by Ravenscroft (HAED chart) ... it was on 50% sale.

£3.96 14 packs of assorted Madeira embroidery thread (ebay)

£1.39 'Cross Stitch Herbs Fruit and Flowers' book after 30% (Works)

£6.49 Simply heritage flower charts (ebay)

£1.20 Cross stitch material Magic Guide 14" x 18" ecru (ebay)

$/£15.82 was carried over plus the $/£ 25 allowance. I have $/£18.28 to carry through to next month. Mind it was a close call. I didn't bid on about 6 kits I was planning onto. Go me.

Till soon,

Tuesday extravaganza returns and another orchid photo

Hello all,

A few years ago I have started stitching my first HAED 'Christmas Candle' in conjunction with my sister's first HAED. We decided to call this (sort of) SAL: Summer Extravaganza. It was meant to be a competition of who gets to finish first. Then the life slightly got in a way and although we have both been stitching, neither of us updated on the progress in the official Tuesday post. For my sister's blog click HERE. I think she updating hers a day late (naughty, naughty ... though who am I to judge, judging by my frequently late posts).

So here goes my current week's progress

last update that you seen (Wipocalypse me thinks)...

13/05/2014

close up

You can see from the closeup that I have all the confetti to look forward to now.

And a terrible photo of my other blooming orchid:

my purple blooming orchid

Mind the colours are a lot deeper in real life. The pot is dark purple ... unless you shine the lamp on it, and the three flowers are also more purple (although also intense and bright). I'll try taking better photos.

Till soon (I still need to brag about my 'finishing' mode),

Smalls #4 - a lovely The Snowflower Diaries finish, my new orchids & TUSAL #5

Hello all,

a slightly belated post on my latest finish for the smalls sal. It is 'Cherry Tree' by TheSnowflower Diaries. If you remember it was gifted to me as a kit for Christmas by my sister. 

I am not sure if many of you are aware but I was struggling, through my own fault, with this design. The green grass on the bottom left I stitched in columns of six (as I was stitching from centre outwards and did not want to make a counting error). Well, as you know this hand dyed stuff tends to be slightly variated. So I had myself columns of six highly visible. I was then debating of whether to leave it that way or unpick it. In the end I unpicked half of the stitching (as the rest was not too bad) and tried matching the shade of floss to the remaining block (to avoid the dreaded line). I think it has worked. 

fabric and thread info

Here are some close-ups of my new orchid. I bought it for £6 (half price!) in a ceramic pot. Pretty good deal as a pot normally costs £2 at least.

And my Tusal update. Not a lot as my last update was soooo late.

2014 so far in a jar

and after some prodding

Till soon (I have another finish to show off),

Stitch from Stash #4

Hello, just a quick update before I have to rush/run to work. There is lots of stash in this update ... and I am still in budget! Thank you to my lovely family who got me lots of stitchy things for my 25th birthday. "Quarter of a Century makes a girl think" (from 'Some Like it Hot')

First up I have some photos of that job lot I bought last time with threads.

sorted into 3 bundles

24 dmc

163 anchor

190 other companies

And I spent £35 if you can remember. So it is not too bad. Mind now I need something to use all those random threads on. And I am not 100% certain about the anchor ones as some are really old and have somebody else instead of Coats listed on the labels. But the logo is the same.

Stash wise mum got me the following kit:

It is  'Victorian Roses' by Candamar Designs. I can't wait to start stitching it ... look at all the gorgeous threads:

My sister gifted me four lovely charts by Little House Needleworks with buttons:

I have already sorted the fabric and threads for all 12 designs ... even though I only have charts and buttons for 6. I think I am going to start on 'Love' next month.

What did I actually buy then ... a magazine:

£4.25

It was a huge disappointment. The cover design is nice, and one other, but as magazine was packed up I did not realise that was all that would interest me in it. I don't think I will be buying this one again any time soon.

I also bought the Fizzy Moon kit exclusive from the World of Cross Stitching for £19.99. But it still hasn't arrived (almost a month now). And I am worried as they have put the price up to £24.99 now ... I will have to wait and see. But I would have felt a lot better if it was in my stash draw!

Okay I carried forward $/£15.06 + this month's allowance of $/£25 which is $/£40.06 I could have spent. I only spent £24.24. So I have $/£15.82 to carry forward. But the scary part next month is May ... and for some reason May and June are the worst for my cross stitching shopping sprees. Good luck to me!

And just a quick note on the projects from stash that I started this month:

Ember II

QS Poisonous Beauties

Till soon,